**A/N** Hi guys! Sorry this wasn't up yesterday, I got distracted by something for an upcoming chapter. No spoilers or anything but it's going to be really fkn cute! Okay, that's it, I might be uploading again today but I'm not 100% sure yet. Lots of love and happy reading xx
-----------------
"Then they set the bloody house on fire!"
Jordan stabs her sausage and points it at Lysander, "And like big flames too, not just like a bonfire! I was scared I was going to die!"
"You were nowhere near dying," I say to her, "You weren't even in the living room when Hugo screamed.
Jordan glares at me as if she's trying to communicate telepathically.
Lorcan sighs, "I wish our Easter was as eventful as that."
"Are you mad? We went to see Granny and Grandpa and while Dad was busy crying and Mum was braiding Granny's hair we went off and did some exploring. I saw a man who only had half a face!" Lysander says, "Like imagine..." He picks up a slice of ham that nearly makes Lorcan gag and puts it on half his face, "imagine this, lying in a hospital bed."
"You're disgusting," I laugh as he peels the ham off his face and puts it on his plate.
"Disgusting or a really good storyteller?" Lysander winks and takes a bite of his roll.
I look at Lorcan who has grown really quiet, "You good over there?"
He looks up at me and smiles, "Yeah, great."
I'm not good with social cues, never have been, but I know my best friend, and I know that he is very much not okay right now.
"I might call it a night early I think," I say to my friends.
Jordan looks at my plate, "You've only had like four bites. On the train, you were saying how starving you were."
"Yeah but I'm more tired than anything. I'll see you guys in potions tomorrow morning." I get up from the table and put my hand on Jordan's head as a way of giving affection.
"I think I might come with you," Lorcan says, "Make sure you can get into the common room and everything. See you in potions." He says to Jordan and Lysander.
We pass Ophelia and Ash on our way out of the Great Hall. Ophelia gives me a look like she's worried and wants to make sure I'm alright so I nod as a way to assure her that I'm fine.
"Thanks for that," Lorcan says, "I'm not really in the mood to listen to Ly talk about how great it was to spend our holiday in Saint Mungo's," He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a sweets wrapper, "You get jumpers from your Nan, I get old sweets wrappers."
I look at him but I don't say anything as we climb the stairs, working our way to the Ravenclaw tower. I don't really know what to say if I should say anything at all. I don't know how it feels to have a Nan who doesn't really get who you are or why you're in the same room as them.
Lorcan sighs and puts the wrapper back in his pocket, "Lysander says it's dumb for me to keep it with me. He teases me for being so worked up over some people who don't know who I am and who I've never properly met. Mum and Dad don't say it but I know they're worried about how mean he can be sometimes cause neither of them are like that."
"Lysander is a good human," I say, "I make just as many insensitive jokes and talk back to just as many teachers and you don't say that you're worried about how I'm going to turn out do you?"
"No, but your parents are different than mine. Yours run a joke shop, mine have a flower store."
"Okay yeah, different vibes definitely," I say which makes him laugh.
We reach the Ravenclaw common room door and the door knocker spreads its wings and says, "Take off my skin and I won't cry. But you will. What am I?"
"An onion," Lorcan says. The door swings open and we walk in together, "Is it just me or are the riddles getting easier?"
"Might just mean you're getting smarter," I say, "Your head is definitely bigger than the last time I saw you."
Lorcan looks at me with a confused smile on his face, "What does that even mean?"
"Your head's growing cause your brain is growing. You're getting smarter."
"And somehow you're managing to get dumber," We sit on one of the benches built into the walls by the windows, "Did you do your Easter composition?"
"We had an Easter composition?"
"You're not serious are you?"
"No, but I heard he was a pretty great guy."
"What?"
"Nothing, family joke. Uh, what was the composition for again?"
Lorcan stares at me, "How one goes about harvesting rat tails for brewing potions in the safe and humane way?"
"I don't think harvesting tails of any kind could be considered humane."
"True, but that's what we had to write about. Mum tried to help me with mine but it didn't end very well. Ended with us looking through her Mum's old experiment notes and what not."
"That sounds like a much better way to spend your time. How about we do that instead."
"Or you can do your composition given it's due at eight-thirty in the morning."
"And what time is it now?"
Lorcan looks at his watch, "Eight-thirty at night."
"That gives me... twelve hours? It'll only take me three probably. That gives me nine hours before I have to start working on it," I take my shoes off and kick my feet up on the bench.
"That's not... no that's not how that works."
'You're saying my maths is wrong?"
"No, but why don't you just spend the three hours doing it now so that you can get sleep tonight."
"Cause I don't want to do it now. Trust the process."
Lorcan rolls his eyes, "I trust that you'll be in detention tomorrow evening for not getting your composition done."
"Who knows, if I don't get detention tomorrow then a giant might come out of the Forbidden Forest and kill me. And if I just got a detention then I would have stayed alive and safe."
"If you do your composition then maybe the giant wouldn't come out of the Forbidden forest in the first place."
I look at my friend, "You make a good point."
"If you go get your things I can help you."
"You'll do it for me? Sold." I jump up from the bench and run for the spiral stairs in the middle of the room
"I said I'd help you!" Lorcan calls after me, "Not do it for you!"
I go into my dorm room and head straight for my trunk. The house-elves bring everyones things to their rooms when we eat dinner so we don't have to lug our stuff up a million stairs. How they do it though I'll never know.
"Potions... right? He said potions?" I mutter to myself as I sort through my textbooks, "Or was it herbology... no, rats tails. Care of magical creatures..."
The door opens behind me and my dormmates file into the room laughing. I've never gotten along with any of them. They're all the same. Great grades, knows everything, perfect hair, perfect clothes. Basically what everyone thinks of when they hear Ravenclaw.
"Mother and Father took me to America over the holiday," Diana says. It's obvious that she's trying to impress everyone, "I have an Aunt living in New York City."
She crosses the room and sits on top of her trunk, "Annabeth, what did you do during your holiday?"
I turn around clutching some crumpled parchment, a muggle pen, and my potions textbook in my hands, "Well my sister was almost kidnapped by her boyfriend's father but that didn't happen, and my cousins and I snuck out to a street festival without my Mum and Dads knowledge, then my uncle set my Nan and Pops house on fire with baby dragons. But I mostly just worked in the shop like I always do. Thanks for asking! New York was probably fantastic!" I walk over to the door, "I've got a composition to write, I'll see you all tomorrow!"
Once the door closes behind me, everyone inside my dorm laughs loud enough for me to hear.
"What a weirdo!" Isabella says loudly and they all burst into laughter again.
I stand there longer than I probably should have, listening to them all laugh at me, making fun of me, talking in my accent, things like that.
I walk down the stairs back to Lorcan a lot slower than I ran up the stairs to get my things.
Lorcan has migrated from the bench to one of the desks by the art studio at the back of the room. He looks up and smiles at me but when I don't smile back his smile changes into a frown.
"Is everything alright?" He asks.
"Girls are mean. Rat tails right?" I open my textbook and flip to the table of context.
Lorcan puts his hand over mine, "You sure you're alright?"
"Fine, yeah."
Lorcan doesn't want to let it go and I can tell but he does anyways. It takes us till eleven at night to finish my composition, mostly because all I really did was balance my pen on my upper lip instead of actually write what Lor was telling me to.
But I also just wanted to waste time. I know that my dormmates don't go to bed till late, especially when it's the first night back from a holiday. And I don't want to go in there when they're still conscious and give them something else to make fun of me for.
"I'm going to head to bed I think. I haven't had to get up at seven for a long time," Lorcan yawns and stretches his arms high above his head, "You should go to bed too."
I shrug and look at my finished composition, "I think I might rewrite this on nicer parchment before I go to bed."
"You've never once cared about the type of parchment you're writing on."
"Today I do."
"Why don't you want to go into your dorm?"
I look at Lorcan, "Cause the girls in there are mean and I don't want to listen to them make fun of me any more than I have to."
Lorcan nods then he stands up from the desk, "Come on, grab your things."
"Lory I'm not tired. I'll see you in the morning."
He rolls his eyes, "Come on Weasley. You're having a sleepover in my dorm tonight."
"I really don't want to sleep on your floor mate. When was the last time any of you cleaned it?"
"You're not sleeping on my floor. Let's go."
I roll my eyes but get up and follow Lor up the stairs and to the same floor that my dorm is on. But instead of going into the girl's room, I follow Lorcan to the boy's dorm. There's loud music blaring from behind the door and Lorcan smiles at me before he pushes it open.
"Longbottom! We're starting a commune and moving out of society! I told the boys you were in." Raphael Tran shouts as soon as we walk into the room, "Weasley?"
"Hey," I say, sheepishly waving my hand hello.
All the boys look at each other, "You want to join our commune?" Zach McConnel asks, "No money, no pressures from outside government, just us, making our own homes, trading instead of buying, and living completely off the grid."
"Not a cult thing though," Jessie Dennis says. He's pacing back and forth on his bed, "Just a happy healthy commune."
"No weird shit," Albert Bray adds.
Lorcan sighs, "I'm in, you idiots wouldn't last a week without my knowledge of plants and things."
"Says you." Jessie retorts.
Lorcan sits on his bed and kicks off his shoes, I stay in the doorway awkwardly.
"You know you can come in right?" Zach says to me, "It's not like we're going to bite you."
I come into the room more and sit on Lorcan's trunk, putting my stuff down beside me.
"As I was saying," Raphael says, "If we move to like Scotland..."
"We're currently in Scotland mate," Jessie says.
"Yeah but we're all from England."
"No, we're not. I'm from Ireland thanks," Albert says.
"If we all stay in Scotland!" Raphael says louder, "Then we can find a bit of land in the middle of nowhere and build our homes!"
At first, I just listen to the boys as they plan their commune and making jabs at the government that we have in place and the fact that money is dumb. But it doesn't take me very long to get comfortable around them all and start debating loudly and drawing up blueprints for the commune that we're not starting but we want to, but we don't have the money because we are all twelve and thirteen. And when it's like two in the morning and everyone is actually ready to go to bed, the boys all leave the room so I can get changed into a pair of pyjamas that Lorcan lets me borrow.
Lorcan and I crawl into his bed together, thankfully the Hogwarts beds are big enough for two people or else this may have gotten awkward.
"Feeling better?" Lorcan asks as Raphael goes around the room blowing out the candles.
"Yeah," I say to him, "Thanks, mate."
"Course."
"Someone set the alarm for six-thirty!" Zach calls from his bed once all the candles have been blown out.
"Wake me up at six-thirty and I'll rip your toenails off," Jessie says.
"Weasley! You're the most responsible one here..." Raphael shouts.
Lorcan and I burst into laughter, "No!" I say back, "No trust me I'm really not!"
"Lorcan, set your alarms!" Albert says.
"They've been set!" Lorcan responds.
Everyone says goodnight and for the first time all night, the room is quiet.
This is what I thought Hogwarts was going to be like when I first started here. Sharing a room with like-minded people for months on end as we study and talk about different concepts and debating world issues and things. Not living in a room of girls who judge you for literally everything you have ever done ever.
It's safe to say that tonight was basically the most fun I've had in a dorm room. Except for maybe that one time when Ophelia let me stay in her dorm my first night here and she flooded the loo. That was pretty bloody fantastic.
A bed creaks and light floods the room. I open my eyes just a bit and look around. Jessie sits up in his bed, "If the universe is infinite. How is it expanding? What is it expanding into?"
Four more candles light up and everyone including myself sits up in bed and starts discussing possibilities. Just like that, no weird looks, no laughter, no second-guessing. Just an intellectual conversation.
I lean over to Lorcan and whisper, "Thanks for letting me spend the night."
He smiles and puts his arm over my shoulders, "Course. I couldn't let my emotional support Weasley have a bad first night back at school now could I?"
I want to say something back to him but my train of thought is interrupted when Raphael shouts,
"The space between galaxies gets bigger as they move around their own suns! The universe itself is not getting bigger! Now can we please go to sleep!"